Just started back in the game. A few things I learned

I returned after quitting the game a year ago. Was just intrigued by the idea of starting a new city and seeing how fast I could grow it. I have an advantage because I was able to rejoin some friends I had played with before. So I could take my 10K Might account into a clan of 23B in Might at 600M in wealth. So...huge advantage.

I started Sunday night around 8PM EST. It is Friday around 9:30AM EST as I write this. I'm now sitting at 3.7M in might, have all troop levels 3 with all troop levels 4 unlocked for research. I am currently researching Crypts 4 because I don't want to get my troop levels higher until the next triumphal.

I bought three things for $30. A $5 starter package so i could teleport my city; the Total Development package where you get the ability to finish all processes instantly; and I ended up buying the Golden pass because even though I only started on Sunday, I'm now at level 98. So, the Golden pass really didn't have much to do with my might gain this time around (as I only got it last night). But the mercs will help me get to the 127 level so I can unlock the Lava City.

During the total development period I was able to get EVERY building in my city up to level 19. That is really where being in a large clan was helpful - resources were never an issue. Also my clanmates gave me about 250M in silver so I could train and grind to get all my research done. As I said, I have all the prerequisites done. I have to say I got REALLY lucky here. My clan did a CP run when I first got there and my hero went to level 19. Luckily the CP run just stopped, otherwise I'd never have been able to have done all the research I got done. (I had all the buildings built out to 19 by the end of the first free completion period.

When the Total Development period shut off, I immediately took my hero over 19 so I could get the academy upgraded. Last night I got the Capitol, Caravan, Temple, Farm House, Mansion, Barracks, Warehouse, and Portal master all upgraded so I could FINALLY upgrade the Academy and start that other research. I now went back and am taking the Capitol up to 22 (and will take it to 24 prior to upgrading any more buildings). Because I am not resource constrained, that's the smarter approach because of the speed up benefit you get from having a higher level capitol.

Lastly, I also saved ALL of my achievements that gave XP in the quests page and didn't claim them until I was ready to. I finally got Carter, Farhad, and Auroa and put them all active. I had about 550 to claim. Claiming those like that took Carter and Farhad from 0 to level 20 instantly. (plus got like 3M in each RSS, 6M in VP, and other stuff). I tried doing this with my Hero dead but he still got XP.

Lessons here for newer players:

1. Try to find a larger clan to join. That is your number one way to faster growth. If you've been playing this game a for a little bit and you like it, I'd snoop around a bit and see if you can find an academy clan that will let you join. BUT, will let you join with a BRAND NEW Account, if you have already used your Total Development package. It will be much faster for you to just start over if you are in an account with say 300K in might and you've already used your TD package. My first time through, I obviously didn't know what I was doing. I only got to about 200K in might after my TD pack expired. That time through I unlocked Level 4s around the two month mark. This time I was able to do it in under 5 days, but simply choosing not to do the research. 2. When you have the total development package available, you need to be prepared to take full advantage. You'll need about 250-300M of each RSS (wood, iron, stone) to build everything out to Level 19. More importantly, you will need to have Blue Prints. You will probably need about 50K in gold to buy enough to let you level it up. Have all of that on hand before you start the package. 3. Also, you need a lot of silver. My clan mates gave me over 200M in caravans PLUS we (well, they) destroyed a tin man that gave me another 170M. I was able to use that to buy Mercs at the exchanges, which you can do if you are in an open kingdom. With Mercs I was able to get a lot of VP from the tin men (I sent about 55 hits on the three summons, because again, silver and speedups weren't issues). And with all that VP I could do all that research for free.

I'm not writing this to "brag" This game is a bit weird, I have had people telling me how much epic tar they have on hand, like "so"? The reason I'm writing this is to encourage starting players to get out of those closed kingdoms that have lots of BS going on, find an academy clan, and be a small fish in a big pond. THAT is the fastest way to grow.

This game really has 4 great constraints for a new player. RSS, Silver, Speedups, and Tar. Blueprints too, but we can set those aside because if you solve the first three, you will have blueprints solved as well. those first three are all solved by being in a larger clan. Established kingdoms - And I'm talking about kingdoms with lots of 800M and higher players - have many players willing to help you with RSS. Even if you are in a smaller clan. You can just go into the Kingdom Chat and ask and before you know it you will have 300M in each RSS in your city.

Silver is a bit tougher to ask for, but many of those larger players will throw some your way. 30M in silver for a 800M player is like 500K for a 1M player. Really not a big deal.

Speedups are largely solved by being in a larger clan - you will get plenty in chests. If you don't, well here is where you have to spend real money, get the golden pass, and have those speed ups.

The other constraint - Tar. Well, in a larger clan you will get more, but not THAT much more at the level most of us will be at. Really big clans get a lot, but its still a constraint. My solution there is to concentrate on crypting early. Focus on leveling up Carter and focus on building his good equipment so that you make his crypting more efficient. Right now, I only built out the first iteration of crappy guardsmen equipment for the challenge, as well as the burning crown, and then I turned to building crypting equipment. I built two blues and one purple. I will have carter in those while I now focus on building out max equipment for crypting. Until I get Carter leveled up to a suitable level (able to do a level 15 in one swipe), I won't touch a rare crypt because the rare tar is a constant constraint. I also won't touch an epic crypt until I can do a Level 25 in one swipe. Because Epic tar is always a tough find if you aren't spending a lot of money.

Once you get carter really efficient, THEN you can go back and start building that equipment for your battle captains. Build a Blue/purple, then a red or yellow. You can build a set of crappy honored ruler equipment for Helen that you plug in with troop training speed gems and enchantments, Or you can take that first set of crappy equipment and use that. Doesn't matter as you should only use Helen when starting training process.

Why not build battle equipment early? After all, your army will be stronger and you will get VP faster. True. BUT if you are in an environment where you are getting a lot of silver, and you have speed ups, then VP is not an issue. The boost you get from low level equipment is negligible. don't mess around with it. The silver and speed ups you will spend there is better spent elsewhere. And the artifacts you use would be better spent being a small part of a better piece of equipment.

Anyway, didn't mean to make this a manifesto, just wanted to record a few things I learned. Hope if is helpful to some players just starting.

Edit - i did make one mistake - i restarted two days AFTER Ragnarok instead of a day before. If I would have started a day before, I would be really fat with coins because I would have gone up two troop levels during the event (I had G3s within 48 hours of restarting).